Fractional diffusion limit for collisional kinetic equations: A moments method

Abstract

This paper is devoted to hydrodynamic limits of linear kinetic equations when the thermodynamical equilibrium is described by a heavy-tail distribution function rather than a Maxwellian distribution. We show that the long time/small mean free path behavior of the solution of the kinetic equation is described by a fractional diffusion equation. The method that we introduce is somewhat reminiscent of the so-called "moments method" which plays an important role in kinetic theory.